Interview: Bright opens up on Ronnie as being the engine of Buk Bak

It’s been days since Ronnie, the other half of hiplife group, Buk Bak, departed into eternity. Bright, the group’s other unit is still struggling with the blunt reality – that what used to be a strong, and from afar, tightly-knit group, is no more.

In this interview with enewsgh.com’s Abdullai Isshak, he tells us all about Ronnie, and why his death has left a sour taste in his mouth.

From day one of the Buk Bak journey to this point, if there was this one person you will like to give thanks to, who will that be?

There are a lot of people but I will mention Sandria Bruce, she was like a mother to us, she is the kind of person you don’t go to with your nonsense. She kept us grounded and level headed at all times. She held us down in every sense of the word.

What are some of the moments that stand out and will keep reminding you of your brother and music partner?

When we first joined micro blogging site twitter, he was very excited and to get use to it, we had to be tweeting each other with unusual stuff that didn’t even make sense. We will talk about our tooth brushes, food, animals and everything that popped up in our minds.

We were from the old school trying to join the new school and things had changed so much we had no option but to strap up and do what the new school was doing which was social media. It was fun and very out there at a point because it seems we were telling our fans almost everything that was happening at every point in time.

And gradually we started warming up to the online family we had… The kind of people that never saw us in person, never saw us perform, never seen any of our videos but heard our songs on radio and tweet at us about how they loved the music. That was when we realized a lot had changed while we were in hiatus.

We also went shopping for a watch and he picked this analog watch he liked and pressed a button and the digital reading of the time also popped up on the screen and I told him it was 7.58pm. He was fascinated by that and so we decided to buy the same watch. He opted for white and I chose black. Since the news broke, this watch has been on my wrist till now.

He also had so many names for me I couldn’t even count, from Tsina, to AB Crenstil and many other names. The names depended on his mood and it kept changing with each call or conversation. We were in our 30's but tried to enjoy life like we were in our teens.

I understand you still didn’t believe Ronnie was gone, has it sank in now?

Ronnie is gone physically but I know and feel him around me spiritually, it’s still hard to believe he is gone and until I saw his casket being pulled out from the hearse I still had this strong believe he was going to wake up at some point and everything will go back to normal. But it is what it is now. The teasing, funny-name calling and those assurances he always gave me when I seemed worried has been reduced to memories now.

You said in an earlier interview that Buk Bak was never going to be the same, what did you mean?

Truth is he was the engine of everything that happened with Buk Bak, it was his drive that kept us all going. I know from this moment everything has changed and the engine and energy that kept the flames burning is no more. Things will not be the same again without him. I am being forced to accept it but I don’t know if I will come to understand the whole thing some day. May be it will happen soon may be it will never happen. From this safe and deep space within me, I just know things will never be the same.

Work wise, what will you miss?

When I was down and worried about happenings and how slow the promotion was picking up, he will assure me everything was alright and that everything was under control.

I was the baby of the group and whenever I was worried about how things turned out he will talk me through the processes of things and the reasons why things were moving the directions and speed at which they were happening. He always had a way of convincing me.

So I will try and make all the projects we lined up before he passed to come to be… He was the one calling the DJ’s up and making sure the promotions were in order; he was the one sorting out the art cover for our CD’s. And everything else he was delaying at every point in time was due to a lot of other stuff that had to be handled at the same time. No one on the team could outwork him; he had his hands in almost all the process that was happening. I will try my best.

I know it was difficult to look at him as people filed past, how did you feel about the whole process from wake keeping to interment?

I saw him sleeping his painful live of negativity and hatred away as he lay calmly and people walk pass him. The entire backlash Buk Bak went through, now that he is resting I hope everything rest. All the statements people put out before and after him should be put to rest. This has thought me a lot personally and my approach to life and everything in general will change.

The whole world is watching you now; they want to see how you will fare after Ronnie’s demise. Are you ready for the challenge?

Absolutely, it won’t be a walk in the park but I know I will be fine. Now, I look up to him literally because he is up there now looking over me and all his loved ones he left behind. He made me happy.

Buk Bak will never be the same. When the news broke and all the people I trusted confirmed it, I wept and days after I had a dream and he told me to stop crying and man up and that I will be fine and assured me everything was going to find a way to work out for the best…

If I hold on to the pain, I don’t know what will happen. I am learning to accept everything that has happened and it might take a while and I hope I will get all the time I need to process and accept everything that has happened. God be with him and us all.